Make the Most of Your Hydraulic Press

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Learn safe and efficient techniques for getting the most from your hydraulic press as you make beautiful pendants, earrings and bracelets.

Get to Know Your Press

Meet Melissa Muir and start by learning basic operations and guidelines for using your hydraulic press. Then, Melissa will show you how to apply and release pressure, and remove or clean up your shapes, all while creating a pair of earrings using a pancake die.

Next Steps With Your Die Cuts

Achieve new effects using your pancake dies, from forming custom shapes to piercing those shapes for fresh looks. You’ll even discover riveting options for assembling layered pieces for a look with great texture and interest.

Silhouette Dies

Explore best practices for using silhouette dies as you create a pendant form. And, learn how to apply jewelry techniques to domed pieces for professional-quality results.

Embossing

Design and create your own embossed form. Melissa will show you how to emboss texture onto a bracelet blank, and how to cut out bracelet blanks with ease. Then, she shares inspiration and ideas for a variety of treatments and embellishments you can try out in your own work.

Bracelets

Discover the secrets to creating bracelet blanks. Then, learn two different methods to form bracelets: anticlastic and synclastic. You’ll also explore variations you can use in future projects.

Fold-Formed Jewelry

Finally, Melissa walks you through each step of folding form blanks. Plus, you’ll develop an understanding of when you should press fold forms. Then, find out how to apply these techniques to bracelets and T-fold pendants for pieces that demand attention.